The first four issues of self-improvement, from the previous article:
Industrialized short lived artificial value;
Lack of coherence and/or connection between the presented ideas;
Lack of closure;
Inexistent entry bars.
The target of the series is to innovate the self-improvement (or self-help, whatever you call it) concept so that it will actually benefit real people.
At the moment, the general area of self-improvement has become very unethical, being focused on selling cheap candies for piles of money.
Other than the previous four issues, there are some more, as follows.
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“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.†- William Pollard
You might have noticed that my posting frequency has slowed down lately. Don’t worry (or start partying), I’m not leaving. I’m just getting started, actually.
The less frequent posting is due to two reasons:
The offline world requires more of my time this period of the year;
I have a rather strong feeling that there is something wrong with what I do on this blog.
I’m sure no one will have trouble understanding the first reason, but what about the second one. What do I mean by saying there’s something wrong with what I do on this blog? What could possibly be so wrong as to make me question doing it? If you’re a personal-development blogger yourself, or if you enjoy the topic of personal-development, you need to read this.
But first, look again at the title. It says “fixing the self-improvement concept,” implying that there is something wrong with it.
To better understand what you’ll read further on, you might want to read one of my older articles, called The 5 principles of sustainable innovation. In that article I wrote that the logical chain leading to innovation (which is a pragmatic crystallization of creativity) has five steps.
Dissatisfaction
Problem-solving
Imagination
Vision
Luck
The first two steps are the ones that are relevant to this article. Those two steps are the reason why I’m writing this.
In the same article on innovation, I wrote that an innovative idea isn’t necessarily a completely new one, but often times an improved version of an old idea. Improved either by introducing something new, or by fixing something that was broken. And because there’s something wrong with the self-improvement concept, it needs fixing - through innovation.
Now let’s change gears and see what is wrong with the current self-improvement environment (the concept and most of its applied forms).
“There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night’s sleep†- Edgar Watson Howe
A good night’s sleep is an essential biological need. Without it, you can’t be your best during the day – at work, at home, in the car, or anyplace else.
Our behavior, moods, our ability to make decisions and even our eating habits are hugely affected by the quality and quantity of sleep that we get. Sleep experts recommend eight hours of sleep each night to maintain good sleep health, but in its 2001 Omnibus “Sleep In America” Poll, the U.S. National Sleep Foundation reported that one-third of adults (31%) don’t even get seven hours of sleep per night. The same poll also reported that 22% of respondents said they are so sleepy during the day that it interfered with their daily activities at least a few days every week.
If ignored, sleep problems can also contribute to significant health problems, such as strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, clinical depression, diabetes and other serious conditions.
Sleep issues can have a deep impact over an individual’s professional life, personal activities and general well-being.
However, getting a good night’s sleep is easier said than done, the hardest thing to do being right there at the beginning; falling asleep.
“How do people go to sleep? I’m afraid I’ve lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the nightlight. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember†- Dorothy Parker
As I wrote in an older article, laughing is good. Of course, that is if you don’t laugh all day long - some might say.
If one laughs too much, one is consideredabnormal. But to really understand what abnormal is, we have to understand its root, normal. Here are some definitions for normal:
conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm;
in accordance with scientific laws
being approximately average or within certain limits in e.g. intelligence and development;
convention: something regarded as a normative example;
As you see, the abnormality of laughing too much has nothing to do with the ideas associated with abnormality; laughing too much is simply different from what most other people are doing.
Now, do you consider yourself to be normal or abnormal?
How wise is it to call something good and wonderful without looking into the future and asking, “where could it lead me?”
Not too wise. And yet we do it all the time.
When someone earns more, he feels that it’s a good thing. When someone enjoys life more, he feels that it’s a good thing. When someone buys a new car, he feels that it’s a good thing. Et cetera.
But what is that which we catalog as being good? It is our perceived experience of a single moment belonging to a stretch. And more often than not, we ignore the fact that we are not living in that single moment, but in the stretch. And so it means that we get caught up in the smallest of the details; most of the time.
There is a little Zen story that I’d like to share with you on this topic. I don’t know how it is called or where I have heard of it, but it goes like this. Continue Reading »
